God's love

The Singles for Christ (SFC) SoCal West Chapter Christian Life Program (CLP) has begun!  If you want to know more about SFC or the Christian Life Program, visit our website.

I can't tell you the number of times I've gone through this program.  It's a series of talks that help guide a person through their faith journey.  Whether it's just the beginning or a supplement to a person's Christian walk, there is always something to learn.

It took years for me to get here, but I finally realized how important it is to attend the CLP.  I understand the wisdom behind its length (be it ten or thirteen weeks).  I attend each CLP talk and listen for a message as if it were my first time.  Humility is a challenging virtue for a lot of us, especially if we think we know everything this community has to offer.  We are sO very wrong.  You learn something new every day of your life.  God speaks to us all the time, and sometimes we fail to hear Him in the words of a talk we think we already know.  If we don't learn one new thing, we weren't listening closely.

So what did I learn last night during Talk 1?  God's love.  Yes, I know God loves me because John 3:16:  "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life."

Noted.  Got it.  But what MORE did I learn?

Today I learned this: "Everything I have is yours." [Luke 15:31]

God loves me so much that everything HE HAS is mine.  His SON is mine.  His LOVE is mine.  His grace is MINE.  In the parable of the Prodigal Son [Luke 15: 11-32], the father welcomes his lost son when he returns home.  He welcomes him with a feast and unconditional love.  The brother was a bit jealous since he was obedient to the father and stayed home with him...yet didn't seem to get much from that.  All the father could say to that son was "I love you too.  Everything I have is yours."

The father doesn't short change us of His love.  He doesn't hold back his possessions.  EVERYTHING He has is ours.  He is always ready and willing to give His love freely to us.  Everything.  Died on a cross and all.  Crazy.

Thank you, Lord, for loving me with Your EVERYTHING.  I don't deserve it, but You see me in greater love vision than I see myself.  Thank you.  For everything that is Yours, is mine.  I will love it as You love it.  I pray that all I have is Yours.  I have a harder time giving it all to You, but to love as You love means that I should give You my all too.

Amen.